Ultimately, Anna left with a new cardigan and a dress that Madeline successfully argued her into buying. Something her mother told her that morning rang through her head: ‘Good luck with the clothes shopping.’ She didn’t think much of it then, but now?

… well, now they were trying on shoes, and the little zip-up boots with the heels made Madeline feel a lot better. Her aunt, at least, had a better time finding comfortable flats and trying on some strappy pumps.

“—so as long as you actually call ahead and give them a timeframe of when you’ll be arriving, you should be good to visit.” Madeline explained as they exited the shoe store with another bag in hand.

“Do I have to call a full day ahead?” Anna asked, and Madeline shook her head.

“I know you can’t just call, like, right outside of the gate unless it’s an emergency, but you probably wanna let them know before you get on the plane?”

“Hm… alright.”

“Are you going to be okay visiting, auntie? I know you get antsy around too much resonance, and PA is—”

“I will handle it for Tasha’s and your sake, and that is all I will promise.” Anna grunted, and Madeline just gave a little nod of understanding, turning her head as they walked around one of the second story pathways, looking for something else to do. “Oh, wanna take a look inside the JCPenney?”

“I guess…” Madeline trailed off, Anna turning to see what distracted her. She was staring at that batch of boys again. They weren’t… completely looking the girls’ way, but every now and then they’d glance at them. They looked like perfectly normal teenage boys, though Anna disapproved of the one wearing the big black trench coat; it just looked delinquent to her.

But, alongside them were a few older boys. Those ones immediately made her skin crawl. Tall, lanky, college-age, with some done up hair, a few with short goatees, and they leaned on railings or stood with a sense of self-importance, yet a lack of urgency that made Anna… suspicious. She couldn’t quite explain why, but she didn’t like the way they looked, or stood, or glanced around.

She could picture them smoking and talking loudly at a bus stop, that was one thing, but something else tickled urgently in her chest. Instantly, she was evaluating them between the gaps in the crowd: one wore a big jacket like the boy in the trench coat, he could have any number of weapons under there, and the other two were in basic jeans, T-shirts, but one had a smaller jacket on that could easily hide a knife or a pistol.

“Maybe it’s just coincidence, but I keep seeing those boys.” Madeline said off-handedly, trying to sound casual, but Anna felt slightly vindicated that her niece seemed just as uncomfortable.

“Me too. Just keep an eye out.” Anna ordered, looping her arm around Madeline’s to tug her close, squeezing her hand. “So, JCPenney’s?”

“Mm…” Madeline hummed, turning her focus forward again, her lips pursed in thought. “Actually, would you mind terribly if we went into MacGuffin’s?”

Anna slowed a step, glancing next to the Penney’s to see a much smaller store nearby. It had a single door and a window that was currently covered up by a large piece of cardboard and quite a bit of tape. MacGuffin’s was a sort of mini-chain in the southern part of the US that catered to the needs and interests of psychics, and was a place Anna was extraordinarily familiar with thanks to Tasha wanting to buy all the books whenever they went.

She resisted making a rude noise at the request, and decided… well… “Alright. Just don’t suck up the rest of the afternoon like Tasha does.”

“Oh hell naw, I just wanna see if I can find some mentalism tea before I head back up.” Madeline grinned, and Anna followed her, relieved… casually watching that group of boys hanging around not too far away, all of them turning to look away when she met their eyes.

The interior of your standard psychic shop was almost always… fragrant. A lot of psychics made a big deal out of tea, and a lot of tea companies tried to market their product as game-changing for a psychic’s abilities.

The small, spinning rack near the front of the store advertised their new flavors: ‘a specially balanced blending of herbs and tea leaves to ease your headaches and burn!’ one product exclaimed, almost word-for-word similar to a few other brands, but this one claimed their product was ‘farmed environmentally friendly’, and ‘fast acting’, and ‘a great gift for the holidays!’

A larger variety was on the back wall, past the books written to help an aspiring psychic to learn and master their powers, along with tools and equipment designed for a psychic to practice their abilities. One was a glorified zippo lighter with no flint wheel and a durable gas tank for pyrokinesis. Another was a whole plant-growing set-up for hedgehog aloe, including nutrient packets and a thick book of instructions on how to set your plant up, as well as how to start learning biokinesis for a low-maintenance plant.

Madeline smiled to herself. It was all juvenile stuff, all stuff she’d asked to get from her parents, all stuff she’d worked on in private or with help. She remembered her dad cracking open that thick biokinesis manual, the both of them learning the discipline together in the living room, their minds reaching out into the soil, feeling the wet, dark earth, feeling the smaller, easy-to-miss particles of nutrients buried at the bottom of the soil that they had to draw up into the plant’s roots.

Their aloe had died because Madeline couldn’t stop futzing with it. Figuring out what the proper nutrients ‘looked’ like wasn’t that difficult with the instruction. It seemed like a good idea to go outside and pull healthy nutrients into stray clods of soil to add to the pot, but she hadn’t accounted for the foreign bodies that also got sucked in by her biokinetic pull, including various poisons and plant-killing germs.

She’d learned more from her classes at PA, and most PA students could be considered amateur botanists since the first few years of their classes involved the rigorous study of plant systems in order to understand that biokinesis didn’t easily manipulate living things, it required understanding what did what, what it felt like in your head, how much you could add or take away from it before it died or mutated into something unrecognizable… and then died.

She’d learned a lot about how evolution worked thanks to the weak links in her plants getting picked off week by week…

The really hard part was taking all this knowledge into medicine. Humans… weren’t as easy to sacrifice as plants. The damage done by careless, or forceful biokinetic delving could be irreparable, and cancer was frighteningly common amongst biokinetic patients from the mid-70’s.

Madeline was happy to go into divination, but she respected the people studying medicine. Hospitals were reluctant to keep biokinetics on staff, usually hiring some on commission from a union, but there was hope that, with Diviners seeing a steady increase in demand, other businesses would follow suit.

She wondered if Taz had ever gotten one of these…

Glancing Anna’s way, she could see her aunt staring at a wall of bumper stickers and posters. She, in particular, was looking at a bumper sticker that read: ‘My daughter can see the future!’ Others were present: ‘My son is a fire starter!’, ‘My daughter knows how you feel!’, ‘My son charges me up!’

Madeline doubted Anna let her daughter bring one of those kits home. Her aunt could be infuriatingly restrictive with psychic stuff, and though she accepted she didn’t have a say in Madeline’s life, she knew her aunt’s opinion on PA. She was sure she privately thought Madeline was wasting her life with divination as well…

They didn’t talk about it. Hell, Anna usually shut that sort of conversation down, and Madeline assumed it was out of politeness. In a way, it made Madeline angry, but another part of her knew the alternative was worse; her aunt was a deeply opinionated and prejudiced woman in some regards, but put her everything towards loving her two psychic daughters all the same.

Couldn’t have her cake and eat it too, Madeline supposed…

“Are you looking for anything, miss?” Somebody asked from behind the desk.

Madeline looked over and saw a young woman standing there, looking a little older than she was. Brown-skinned, short-cropped black hair, wearing a simple T-shirt and jeans under an apron with a nametag on. Maria, was her name, and she wore a beautiful blue-and-orange faux-ivory privacy band.

“Oh, yeah, hey!” Madeline stood up, facing the woman with a smile. “I came in for mentalism tea if y’all have any.”

“Mentalism tea…” Maria repeated to herself, glancing over at the wall of tea leaves thoughtfully. “I dunno if we have any, this location is more about calming or weakening teas.”

“Are y’all sure? Do you have anything like it?” Madeline approached the desk, and the woman tapped her chin.

“Remind me what mentalism tea does?”

“Y’know, puts you in a mentalist state?” Madeline tapped her temple through her tiara-shaped band. “Like, it’s supposed to make it easier for you to go into that hyper-focus that David Copperfield was all about.”

“Oooh, right, that. Nah, I think you’ll have to look outside of Tucson.”

“Ah, that’s unfortunate.” Madeline pouted. Well, she’d promised Anna she wouldn’t be in here all day just browsing, though her aunt was curiously looking at a poster depicting a rather famous moment of Zhou Ping wearing what could only be described as the ugliest checkered suit in the world and Groucho Marx glasses at some Halloween event.

Just past the woman was where the front window would have been, except for the cardboard replacing it…

“Well I think that’s all I really needed.” Madeline gave the woman an apologetic shrug, and Maria swept a hand over to her left.

“Are you sure? We just got in some new privacy bands~!”

“I’m sure, thanks.” Madeline sighed, tossing the accessories a quick glance… noooo, she promised her aunt… who wasn’t really paying attention anyways. “Maybe a peek.” Madeline conceded.

Maria laughed as Madeline went over to the racks carrying the heavy little circlets, some beautiful and feminine, some strong and masculine, with plenty inbetween. She picked up one that looked like it was made out of carved jade, but the $50 price tag told her that it had to be fake.

“If you have any questions, feel free to ask!” Maria offered, and Madeline gave an inattentive nod as she took down a Disney-licensed one that looked like Princess Jasmine’s classic circlet.

“Alright.” Madeline hummed a little. “If ya don’t mind me asking, what happened to y’all’s window?” She asked, gesturing to the cardboard seal for a moment.

Maria’s expression tightened for a moment, looking over at Anna, staring at the woman’s bare forehead, before looking back at Madeline. “Buncha people busted it real early one morning and ran off. Left a brick behind the counter with a bunch of anti-psi stuff on it.”

“Oh damn.” Madeline blinked, looking away from the bands to give the woman a small frown. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

“It’s not your fault. Tucson’s got this growing anti-psi group that’s been giving me and every other psychic vendor a headache.” Maria sighed thickly. “They also leave hate mail, and I heard they all but bullied a psionic teacher into leaving his job.”

“That’s awful.” Madeline’s cheek twitched.

“Yeah. Guy moved up to Chandler and got a job teaching Algebra there. Algebra.” Maria repeated gruffly. “Guy was teaching Algebra and they ran him outta town.”

“Well, some folk are just… like that.” Madeline kept her eyes firmly on Maria, not wanting to imply that the blonde woman reading tea packages would do the same. “Have you considered moving out?”

“If I had the money, I’d move up to PJ.” Maria answered with a helpless shrug.

“PJ’s a good place for folk like us, you should see if you can arrange anything with the school, they might need some people in the campus store.” Madeline offered.

“That would actually be great. Ugh, being around other psychics would be a nice change of pace.” Maria’s voice lowered, and she spoke out of the side of her mouth conspiratorially. “Can’t wait for us to take over~.”

Madeline paused, tilting her head at the woman worriedly. “What was that?”

“Hm?” Maria seemed to remember where she was. “Oh, yeah, nothing, I’m just looking forward to when psychics are actually in charge of things. I’m sick of having to pretend I’m harmless to a bunch of scared neanderthals.”

Madeline felt an unease creep into her chest, and she watched Maria turn her attention to Anna as the woman walked along the wall, examining their wares, pausing briefly to take a stress ball out of a bin to squeeze testingly. It probably was meant for telekinesis, but Madeline was distracted.

With a small frown, she lifted her privacy band, holding it in front of her belly while giving Maria a serious look, the woman returning her stare with confusion, but doing the same. {That sorta talk isn’t gunna put anyone at ease, y’know? Especially with Brain Scythe running around.}

{Oh, c’mon.} Maria rolled her eyes, their bridge filled with annoyance. {Don’t tell me you buy into the whole ‘work together’ thing. Psychics are an advanced form of humanity and everybody else is just struggling to keep up.} Maria held her fingers up, counting off on them as images danced through Madeline’s head. {We can make fire, we can mess with genetics, we can read minds, we can even control them. I guarantee that, in fifty years, psychics will be in charge and plain ol’ humans will be a dying species.}

{Zhou Ping would think otherwise.}

{Zhou Ping was the worst kind of optimist. He was ready to roll over and let lesser people walk all over them because they’re in charge right now. We as a people are smarter and more capable than the normies will ever be. You can’t deny that. Look at us, we’re having a conversation right now nobody else can hear. Humans are meaningless, all they’re doing is holding us back because they’re scared of progress.}

Madeline felt her stomach twist up, and pale images flashed between them of her mom’s delighted face when her daughter showed her her burgeoning divining abilities. {My mother is a non-psychic and she’s done nothing but support me.}

{Then you were raised by a good one. People like that? Totally fine; they know where all this is going. I’m sick of it all. I’m sick of having to play nice and not retaliate when my window gets bashed in. These anti-psi people are apes but the normies aren’t helping us enough; I could be doing so much more with my powers than these knuckle-draggers could accomplish on their own, but I’m told I have to play it safe and do nothing when it turns into name-calling and taunting. Because, if I don’t, I’m the one who gets dragged in front of a judge.}

The bridge was tight and blackened with frustration and anger, and Madeline saw a few flashes of leering faces, heard jeering words, saw a bespectacled man with a disappointed frown, admonishing her for daring to respond with the powers these faces mocked…

Madeline struggled to respond. {There are places better than Tucson. Places other than PJ. Petersburg, where I grew up, doesn’t have those sorts.}

{Great. But while we’re heading for greater things, Tucson’ll be swamped with the anti-psi guys bragging about how much more holy they are for not having scary psychic powers.}

{I’m going to go.} Madeline said suddenly. She was sure this woman would talk her ear off and complain all day if she gave her the chance…

{Yeah? Be safe out there. That thing on your forehead isn’t just making you ‘safe’, it’s how they know what you are.} Was all Maria said before sliding her privacy band back into place.

Madeline quickly made her way over to Anna, and her aunt barely had time to make a sound when Madeline took her head to lead her out of the shop.

“Maddy?”

Madeline led the way towards the escalators. She felt itchy all of a sudden, she wanted to go home. It may have been Maria’s lingering paranoia tinging her thoughts, but she didn’t feel safe in Tucson, and she wanted to get in the car and leave.

“Maddy!”

They got to the escalators, crowds parting for the both of them. She didn’t want to just stand and wait, so she walked down where she could, people budging aside to let her pass, watching her as Anna stumbled to follow her.

“Maddy!”

Madeline spotted the sign directing her towards the exits. They just had to get to the parking garage, get in the car, and go. She could get back home to her loving and supportive mother and not feel so tied up.

“Maddy, honey, slow down!”

Not feel like she was being leashed and muzzled by people who were afraid of her, not feel like she might get whacked in the back of the head by somebody just because her brain was more powerful…

She felt a hand grab her shoulder and she was suddenly whirled around, and it took every bit of restraint to not lash out with her mind and blow her assaulter away, but she didn’t. She stared into Anna’s worried eyes, and felt a hand touch her cheek, and all of a sudden, her tension melted away.

“Maddy?” Anna asked gently. “Are you okay?”

Madeline sucked in a deep breath, glancing around at the crowd of people now staring at them in the center of the mall’s entrance plaza.

Staring.

Judging…

“F-fine…” Madeline murmured. “Sorry, just… can we go home?”

“Yes, but,” Anna’s hand gently ran down her arm and stroked her tightened fist, and Madeline blinked as she realized she was still holding her privacy band, “you’re… thinking up a scene, Maddy.”

Madeline flinched. These people weren’t staring at her because she was storming around, they were staring because they could feel the fretful emotions she was radiating the area with. They stared at her with wide eyes, sharing in her quiet terror, and quickly growing their own.

Was she going to attack them? Was she going to have a meltdown? Were they in danger? She could sense their fears and concerns, their growing anxiousness and anger, and with an anxious grit of her teeth, she slid her privacy band back on, and watched people around her shrink back, the feelings lessened, but they were now in the heads of the crowd watching them, cloying with their growing worry.

“Sorry.” Madeline mumbled, rubbing her cheeks as her aunt examined her closely. “I’m sorry, Annie, just… was talking with the girl back at the store, and something she said bothered me.”

“Oh, honey.” Anna sighed, and Madeline was pulled into a tight hug, Anna’s hand stroking the back of her neck. “Do you want me to go back and kill her for you?” Anna asked in that gentle mom tone of voice, and Madeline actually gave a laugh.

“No, Annie! God, you keep offering to murder people for me and I’ll start asking questions about your exes.” Madeline snickered, loosening herself from Anna’s grasp so they could try and exit the scene with some grace intact.

Anna smiled, though, and squeezed Madeline’s hand. “Well the offer still stands.”

“Appreciated.”

“You wanted to go home?” Anna asked.

Madeline gave a hesitant nod. “Sorry, I know you wanted to look at more clothes…”

“There’s a few outlets in Petersburg we can look at. It’s alright, Maddy, let’s go. We can talk about it in the car.” Madeline nodded, and Anna led the way to the parking garage.